Darthe Capellan
Sport – wrestling
School – St.Thomas More

High school coach Gianni Buono brought back a winning wrestling tradition to Burnaby Central Secondary.

Buono coached Central wrestlers to seven provincial boys’ titles, including an unprecedented five B.C. boys’ banners in a row from 1999 to 2004. From 1991 to the present, Buono has mentored more than 60 high school finalists and 40 individual B.C. champions.

As coach of the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, Buono has put more wrestlers on the podium at cadet, juvenile or junior national championships than any other provincial coach. More of his wrestlers have continued with the sport at college or university levels than from any other programs.

The B.C. Wrestling Association named Buono coach of the year on three separate occasions.

As a competitor at Simon Fraser University, Buono won a senior national title in Greco-Roman wrestling in 1989. He also was a bronze medalist in freestyle wrestling at the nats.

Mike Jones led Simon Fraser University to NAIA wrestling championships in 1988 -1993. His coaching has produced more than 300 dual wins while coaching 88 Americans and 25 NAIA champions.

In 1984 he coached Canada’s Olympic wrestling to two medals and one medal in the 1996 Games. Has coached Burnaby Wrestling Club to 17 consecutive national club titles.

Lorne Davies was Simon Fraser University’s first athletic director and credited with designing, implementing and overseeing Canada’s first financially supported awards program for scholar athletes. Davies was a pioneer in changing how Canadian post-secondary institutions operated in order to keep university athletes in Canada.

He established the first national sports training centres in Canada for soccer, wrestling and track and field. He also established the first women’s varsity softball program in Canada. As well, Davies was the first to offer women athletes top coaching, equipment and scholarships. He hired full-time coaches in all varsity sports and appointed and trained Canada’s first university sports information officer and marketing manager.

Davies sat on the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award board for 20 years and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame for 30 years, as well as many other volunteer committees. Davies was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2000. He was named administrator of the year in 1989 by the NAIA and awarded the Premiers award for contribution to sport in 1994.

He was inducted into the SFU Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Western Washington University Hall of Fame in 1995. Davies even has a Grey Cup ring, won in 1964 as an assistant coach with the B.C. Lions.

Justin Abdou is one of Simon Fraser University’s most successful wrestlers. Competing at 80 kilograms, Abdou was a nine-time Canadian senior champion and won a gold medal for Canada at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

He won two silver medals and two bronze at Pan American Games and represented his country at the Sydney Olympics. During his university career, Abdou won four consecutive NAIA national championship titles, only the second SFU wrestler and fifth on the continent to do so. Abdou finished his collegiate career with a record 204 wins, 24 losses and two draws.

Pier Morten is a two-time B.C. Disabled Athlete of the Year (1988 and 2001) and was the unbeaten 15-time Canadian blind wrestling champion. In 1988, Morten won the blind world wrestling championship, the first European Judo championship and the Canadian powerlifting championship.

He has won wrestling silver in three Paralympics and four bronze medals in judo at four other Paralympics. In 1992 became the world’s first totally blind and deaf athlete to obtain a black belt in judo.

Morten was the first deaf-blind athlete to receive a black belt in judo. He was awarded Sport BC’s Harry Jerome Comeback Award in 1998 and was named the International Blind Sports Federation’s athlete of the year in in 2002. He was inducted into Judo Canada’s Hall of Fame in 2012.

Daniel Igali captured the wrestling gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in his weight class and was Canada’s first World freestyle champion in 1999.

Made the sweep complete by winning the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He is a five-time Canadian champion. Wrestling for Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University, Igali won every one of his 116 matches over three years capturing NAIA titles from 1996 to 1998.